Tigray war - The African Mirror

Nov

2022

OPINION: Understanding Ethiopia’s Tigray war and the new peace deal

RICHARD ALI FOR BIRD STORY AGENCY THE Ethiopian conflict centred on the Tigray region has concerned African security watchers since November 2020, when the fighting started. Last week, the former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, announced a cessation of hostilities in his capacity as the African Union’s High Representative for the Horn of Africa. This unexpected but welcome development likely will not have been possible without the regional knowledge of Uhuru Kenyatta, former president of Kenya, who serves as Special Peace Envoy for Ethiopia, with Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, South Africa’s former Deputy President, completing the troika. The peace deal represents a fine…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

For survivors of Ethiopia’s Tigray war, truce brings cautious hope

NEWS

A ceasefire deal in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region has raised cautious hope among millions of people impacted by the bloody two-year conflict that their anguish could be coming to an end. Many civilians are also reflecting on the terrible losses they suffered, and look to promised aid to rebuild their lives after a war that has killed thousands, displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands facing famine. "I'm very happy - because this will put a hold on the suffering," said a Tigrayan man in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa who declined to be named out of fear of repercussions at his place…

Oct

2022

By The African Mirror

Tigray war: two years on, the AU has failed to broker peace and silence the guns

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE African Union pledged in 2016 to “silence the guns” by the end of 2020, an ambitious agenda of ending armed conflicts on the continent. Just two months before that deadline, the deadliest war in years erupted in Ethiopia. On 3 November 2020, the armies of the Federal Government of Ethiopia and the State of Eritrea attacked the region of Tigray. Since then, the guns have not been silent. Instead, it is the African Union that has been silent. That war is now two years old. Crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed during this time. Some estimates…

Aug

2022

By The African Mirror

Tigray war ignored because of racism: WHO boss

HUMAN RIGHTS

THE World Health Organization's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has suggested that racism is behind a lack of international attention being paid to the plight of civilians in Ethiopia's war-shattered Tigray region. Calling it the "worst humanitarian crisis in the world", with 6 million people unable to access basic services, Tedros questioned in an emotional appeal why the situation is not getting the same attention as the Ukraine conflict. "Maybe the reason is the colour of the skin of the people," Tedros, who is from Tigray, told a virtual media briefing on Wednesday. In April this year at a briefing, he…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Parents appeal for help for students stranded by war

NEWS

DAWIT ENDESHAW THE parents of thousands of Ethiopian students stranded in the war-ravaged northern region of Tigray have appealed for help to evacuate them after the main university warned it could not feed them for much longer amid food and cash shortages. Mekelle University, which gets its budget from the federal government, posted a notice on its Facebook page on Thursday saying its bank accounts have been blocked and the federal government has not sent its funds for this year. It said it was running out of money to feed students and that from July 27 it would stop taking…